There are many different hand operated tape applicators, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,582,979 issued Jan. 22, 1952 to Fritzinger; U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,053 issued Aug. 4, 1970 to Zbinden et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,275 issued May 28, 1974 to Weick et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,271 issued Dec. 9, 1980 to Urushizaki; U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,905 issued Mar. 3, 1981 to Regan; U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,966 issued Aug. 24, 1982 to Iiyoma et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,586 issued Aug. 9, 1988 to Wilkie; U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,377 issued Jun. 24, 1997 inventor Chung and U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,623 issued Oct. 5, 2005 to Cheng; U.S. Pat. No. 7,669,631 issued Mar. 2, 2010, inventor Bailey and Applicant's co-pending application Ser. No. 14/624,895 filed Feb. 18, 2015 by Lam (the same inventor as the instant application.
Essentially all such manual tapers when operated provide a relatively long free leading end portion that is to be applied to the next object to be taped. Normally these conventional hand operated tapers or so call tape dispensers require the operator to pull the free leading end portion with his fingers and then attach it onto the object to initiate the taping process. A cutting knife is also required since the tape is supplied as a continuous ribbon from a supply source that is normally a roll of such tape mounted on the applicator. The knife is usually positioned away from the tape path and the object to avoid accidental tape cut off or damaging the object during the taping process. In many cases a safety guard for the knife is provided to prevent operator injuries. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,377 which discloses a knife that retracts from its normal cutting position for safety purpose. U.S. Pat. No. 7,669,631 relates to limiting snap back of the free leading end of the tape.
In some manually activated tape dispensing devices the cutting operation is manually initiated by some form of triggering operation which presents the tape to the cutting blade to thereby sever the tape see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,762,586; 4,345,966; 4,253,905; and 3,813,275.
The patents to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,345,966 and 3,813,275 together with U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,238,271; 3,523,053; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,582,979 to Fritzinger provide some form of withdraw system to move the free end of the tape away from the point of application, in most cases by physically moving the tape roll etc.
These device disclosed in the referenced patents rely solely on manual dexterity of the operator to move the device in the taping operation and/or in many cases to trigger tape cut-off to complete the operation.